; the little -details- xXx

(I don't know if this is normal for a girl of my generation, but I'm currently listening to Boyzone's old hits :O Is it even normal if I think that they look even hotter now even though they're like ancient? 'Cept for Ronan Keating--he looks better younger, when his hair redefined the popular catchphrase "Soft Bouncy Hair!" My God. His hair. It was so enchanting--like magic!)
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( 3 matches in 1 timeslot = BUSY! )

Well, what can I say?

That "English Dominance" thing that have been happening two times consecutively for the last two years seems to have peeked its nose again this year. Liverpool and Chelsea trash Marseille and Bordeaux 2-1 and 4-0 respectively in what seems to be two games that didn't even make Benitez or Scolari sweat.

(Well, Benitez may have sweat a little since Marseille gained the lead first, but he'd have relaxed when local superhero Steven Gerrard equalised, and made it 2-1 by the first half).

Some people may say "Hey, what the heck, man; it's a competition, the best teams win. And 'sides, English clubs are exciting--they balance out the boring, tactical defensive clubs in CL!" While, yes, it is a competition that more often that not thrills the socks off us fans, it's currently also a sad reflection of the state of club footballs in Europe: the inequality between the EPL and other clubs (yes, even Real Madrid, Barcelona and Inter) is growing, and it doesn't seem like it's going to stop soon.

Let's review, shall we?

2006 Champions League Runners Up: Arsenal
2007 Champions League Semi Finalists: Manchester United; Chelsea
2007 Champions League Runners Up: Liverpool
2008 Champions League Semi Finalist: Liverpool
2008 Champions League Runners Up: Chelsea
2008 Champions League Winner: Manchester United

English clubs have won 11 CL cup, on par with clubs from Italy and Spain, but clubs from the latter two leagues never dominate the competition like that--it's like crows flocking together over food (okay, bad analogy).

Success seems to be an exclusive club chartered to not even all English clubs--specifically, four of them (and if Mark Hughes plays his really lucky cards right, maybe it would be five). In human geography, we learnt about why people living in rural areas immigrate to the urban areas, and the reasons can be divided into "push" or "pull" factors. The same concept can be applied to European football.

"Pull" factors

EPL has probably its marketing team to thank for its current extra-super-star status. Brilliantly marketed and packaged to appeal to people of all generations, of all ages, nationality, race, country, gender and more, the revenue from broadcasting--which increases every year despite a global econmic cooldown--may be what separates the English Premier League from local or international leagues. The rise of an international fanbase that is one of the side effects of the international marketing and broacasting only means that there are more people to buy merchandises (and as demand goes up, so will the price). This all translates to money, and if managed properly, it would equate to a greater spending prowess, which is the biggest pull factor a club can ever have.

Money can buy success. A club with greater spending prowess would be able to hire a manager of a higher calibre and attract the best footballers around, as well as retain them. Success (well, most of the time) due to the presence of an excellent (and expensive) management team and players would reinforce another pulling factor, which is the club's reputation.

For example, players whom have been courted by the suddenly-rich Manchester City still do not wish to go to the club despite the club being overrun with a lot of money trees (I heard that money trees grow best in oil) because of its lack of reputation, lack of famous coach and lack of trophies. But if Manchester City manages to attract enough good players to help increase its reputation in the EPL and international arena, more and more players would be interested in signing up with the club.

In geography, we call such processes a "magnifiying effect". A pulling factor can magnify other factors which would only magnify itself and would overall increase its attractiveness to immigrants--in our case, footballers.

What seems to be the most important thing in footballing scenes nowaday is that a good enough reputation can attract those rich billionaires who would only increase the club's treasury fund, and overall attractiveness. Owning sport clubs is the "cool" thing to do among rich people nowadays, for investment and... for fun (it's the ultimate fan thing to do: buy a club if you love them!) While with the outrageous amount of money comes a lot of pouting, unreasonable requests (Roman Abramovich), outrageous requests (the Abu Dhabi group gave Mark Hughes a list of football players they wanted to have when they joined the club--all of themworld class, outrageously expensive players) and horrible attempts at "Play the Manager!" (Mike Ashley), in the end, the Euros and pounds and blank cheques are the ones that really talk the talk in an inceasingly capitalised football scene.

All the above mentioned factors only reinforce and magnify the attractiveness of the English Premier League--more specifically, the Big Four: Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. There is only one spot for a top league, and it's currently taken by the EPL, and it doesn't look like it's going to budge anytime soon. If anything, it will just keep going further and further out of reach from the other leagues.

"Push" factors

The most obvious "push" factors that push players out of other leagues and into EPL is their hunger for success, fame and in a few cases (well, honestly, a lot of cases), money. As the football scene is dominated by EPL and their clubs (how many of you used to think that EPL is the only pro football league in the world--or if you still think so? I wouldn't be surprised--honestly, before Football Channel, the only matches that were shown in TV here were EPL and World Cup matches, or the occasional Real Madrid and Barcelona games), other leagues suffer as they cannot compete with the rich billionaires in EPL and their popularity--which brings in the cash. Ironically enough, while EPL and their clubs make football even more popular, they keep the spotlight mostly for themselves.

If there is a magnification effect, then there is a "shrinking effect" at play here. We can say that EPL is growing in expense of the other leagues, and as these leagues only get less dominant and seems to get only "smaller" compared to the EPL clubs, players would only get out in order to "spread their wings". Worst comes to worst, these leagues would become feeder leagues--a fate that the Primera Liga is determinedly fighting, and as far as I know, they are slowly losing (we'll talk again after Real gets CRon)--that is, talented players would first play in these leagues, get all the fans and clubs excited about their potential, and then they move away to play with the big boys. French Ligue 1 and Netherlands' Eredivisie are sadly consigned to this fact. Some leagues may just be an "island league", that is, popular within the country--and that's it (although there are some international fans scattered here and there who are so passionate about them that they'd wake up in the wee hours of the morning and stream lousy quality videos--oh wait, am I talking about myself?). Usually players stay in and hardly any other foreigners come in to play. An example of this is Turkey's Turkcell Super Lig, Germany's Bundesliga, and to a certain extent, Italy's Serie A.

(However, the presence of Brazillian and Argentinian players are as rampant in these leagues as well; so foreigners mean players foreign to the league but not Brazilian and Argentinian, since these two countries are so blessed in talent their players are scattered all over the world).

Consequences

Inequality among leagues and clubs, even in the EPL itself. How many of you want to bet that any other club besides Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal would finish in the top 4? How many of you want to be that English clubs would dominate Champions League again? In the long run, this would only mean that football is getting more and more predictable and less exciting. Gone are the days when Leeds United can actually win the Premiership (well, according to Sam, who's the graduate student helping us in our frog IR, Leeds went bankrupt, and they were reformed under the same name and is currently in "division 200"), or when smaller, less known clubs such as Bayer Leverkusen has a shot of winning the Champions League.

Other clubs are slowly giving up on facing the dreaded EPL clubs due to the perceived image of superiority. Karl Heinz Rummenige, who is the chairman of Bundesliga giant Bayern Munich, has this to say:

“The English are ahead of the rest of Europe. The Bundesliga is a long way behind clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. When you look at the potential they have it will be a surprise if the English don’t dominate as they did last year … I can see Chelsea being very strong. They are one of the big favourites.”


As what some people have said: if English clubs are dominating the CL again, what the heck is the point of watching CL? If I want to watch English clubs squaring off against each other, I would have stick to EPL, wouldn't I? 

Solutions

Currently, this is how the draw for CL works:

(From Wikipedia)

The number of places in the competition depends on the association's rank in the UEFA coefficients table:

• associations ranked 1 to 3 have four positions,
• associations ranked 4 to 6 have three positions,
• associations ranked 7 to 15 have two positions,
• associations ranked 16 or lower have one position.

So this means that England, Italy and Spain are represented by four clubs each, France, Germany and Russia by three clubs each and so on. Michael Platini, president of the UEFA, has recently proposed a really clever solution: just frikkin' limit English clubs' slots to three, duh. Of course, it wasn't met with enthusiasm--most people like getting English football in their diet.

For a fast solution if you like watching competitive, less predictable football that may be inferior compared towards CL, than watch UEFA Cup, which goes to the third ranked, fourth ranked, and in some leagues fifth or sixth ranked clubs to try to get as close as they can to conquering Europe (mid-table clubs).

Well, there is a sort of "backwash effect" coming out from this captalizing of EPL which has resulted in overpriced--anything (even Manchester United's Old Trafford's prawn sandwiches cost more than a seat in certain Bundesliga club games). Some EPL fans have started to cross the borders to watch Bundesliga or Ligue 1 games as they offer as exciting football games (well, at times--and if you know how to choose properly) for a discounted price as compared to EPL games, and they are liking what they see. Not only that, EPL has been under fire lately for alienating their fans (a recent example is Newcastle fans' rebellion against owner Mike Ashley), but Bundesliga is well known to let their fans voice out on the happenings of their beloved clubs. This appeals to many of the alienated, hurt fans in EPL and other leagues as well.

(Another way to shift the spotlight from EPL is if Cristiano Ronaldo--the ultimate gay symbol football superstar ever since Beckham and his Golden Balls--moves to Primera Liga. Then, his massive flock of fans may also swith to PL games).

The slow, but sure increase in popularity of the other leagues may set other motions moving--maybe a Roman Abramovich would swoop down and buy a French, German or other leagues' club, and the magnifying effect would shift away from the EPL and onto other leagues.

Conclusion

Globalization (I like that word) and brilliant marketing plan has helped transform EPL into what it is today--powerful, dominant, and in a league of their own. However, this has resulted in an effect that transforms the football scene in Europe and has adverse effects on other leagues and clubs as the inequality among them grow.

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I haven't watched boybands' video clips in a while (the last being Westlife, I think), and I'm a bit disturbed at how boybands like Westlife, Boyzone, Backstreet Boys and Take That can dance like... well, in that boyband way. I don't know why, it just brings to mind Britney Spears and Madonna, and that just wants to make me laugh or retch.

But I think I'm gonna be into Irish boys for a while. They're cute. They're devout Catholic (Ronan keeps his virginity 'till his wedding day--just like Kaka. That just goes to show that hot guys can do it too!). 'Nuff said.

SHIT SO MUCH WORK TO DO. This is the end of my distressing period after those two tests just now. :D

I'm kinda in a football mood right now--I don't know if this has anything to do with the Champions League final 3 hours later (which I've received invitation to watch with my brother and cousins; but nahhh no point staying up so late for two clubs that are not my favorites--a quick youtube playbacks should be sufficient) but I've been spending an entire day surfing through the net to mostly catch up with what had happened in Bundesliga this season; idiot me just realise that even if i can't watch Bundesliga on the silverscreen, I can very much check playbyplays online--shall do that next season if i have time.

Anyway, apparently the touring Bayern's having a blast in Jakarta--they tackled their worst adversary ever: the merciless climate of South East Asia! Jakarta's much like Singapore (although I don't remember it being as hot as now; my God, I swear a little bit of me melted yesterday in the heat), hot and humid and the Europeans couldn't really take that. Oh, and Herr Oliver Kahn is being treated like the king he is ;) Once Bayern's finished their Asia tour, it's gonna hold a farewell gift for King Kahn in the form of a match between the Bavarian giants and the... German national team itself (or in fangirl speak: Pretty Team vs Pretty Team EEEEKKKKK!!! *fangasm*--see below for more information, and just to clarify myself: i don't pretty much fangirl real human beings, unless your name is George Clooney). That would work out pretty funny I guess, since quite a lot of the Bayern Munich players are like the national players (what with Klinsmann taking over Bayern and Borrowski coming in too, making the team really much like the national team--at least during 2006). But nevertheless, interesting: can Kuranyi and Ballack and Schneider and co repel the attack of their very own arsenal: Klose and Poldi and Schweini with support from Ribery and Toni and van Bommel and more?

Anyway, I've stumbled across a group of mostly-hopefully-girls who are even crazier than me (yeah, I've no idea how that is possible either, but hey, impossible is nothing, huh?). The draw of the German national team and Bayern Munich are apparently largely the "pretty boys" that make up the teams--and you know, boys and soccer; once they score or win they'd go around celebrating with each other which would involve hugging or kissing. Yeah, so these girls pair up players and write fanfics about them, inspired by how Klose assists Podolski or how vanBommel grins at Toni etcetc.

I just find it disturbing to pair real life breathing people in flesh and blood. Fangirling is pretty okay I guess, seeing how many people around me fangirl about Jap/Korean guys or Jay Chou or Rain etc. But pairing them? Unless they're like representing characters (for example, I'd pair George Clooney's Danny Ocean with Julia Roberts' Tess Ocean), it's just a bit disturbing--especially since most are already in happy long term relationships with their own WAGs.

Schweinski--Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski pairing--is so popular to the extent that the press and football pundits treat them like a unit (for example, the very commonly-seen headlines on newspapers: Schweini and Poldi don't quite cut it this season or What's happened to Bastian and Lukas?) and Poldi's said in an interview that he is definitely not married to Bastian, and apart from being teammates, they hardly even go out together.

Then there's Miro/vanBommel, Miro/Poldi, Miro/Toni, vanBommel/Toni, etcetcetc (although one can't deny that Miroslav Klose is just so darn cute).

(And I can't deny that the interaction between the members is just really adorable--but I don't go towards the extent of interpreting it as something else).

I guess you can accuse me of being the pot that calls the kettle black since I'm a not-so-closet-fangirl too who pairs up characters from her favorite fandom and put them together in a fanfic/fanart. Well, it's up to you, though I firmly believe in shamelessly playing God to only fictional characters' lives. Look at it this way: let's say you're a celeb of some sort who stumbles across a fanlisting/an LJ community dedicated to a pairing of you and some other actor/actress you hardly know, and imagine that some of the works published are... shameless. You can laugh it off, but I guess you will feel at least a little bit of shock and shame or awkwardness and discomfort uncovering all that.

The good thing about fictional characters is that we can't hurt/embarass them with anything we write or draw as we expand our creative repertoire. At least that's what I believe. I don't want to cause the celebrities I admire any discomfort whatsoever by pairing them up in (especially explicit) fanfic/fanart; I draw the line at speculating and hoping what they'd do next (like whether George Clooney would marry me or not), but not real fanworks.

Anyway, Yang Xuan said that 4 German exchange students are coming by our school. Two girls with her and Natalie and two boys with Jackie and Yixun. Need to learn self control from now on before I embarass myself like how I did two years ago during the iPho.  That's really exciting! (And I won't like stalk them or anything; nah.)

Recap of self taught German since years ago: Gutten Morgen, Ich liebe Dich, Gott en Himmel and a few choice German swear words. Shit, that's horrible.

Then again, I can hardly remember what I'd learned for French. That's even worse: that'd be a real waste of time and money for two years. Maybe I can quickly run through my French stuff this holiday; I know it's somewhere in that drawer of mine...

But I think my French is better than my Chinese. Oh yeah, it's that bad.